There Lies An Old Motor
by Dixon, Dusty, Miller
Recorded by DPN+1
The cabin is rotten, the steel work is thin
Chines are more than well worn
Dollies are buckled, the T-stud is bent
The sheets are all tattered and torn
There are no straps or lines just a pile of old ropes
All knotted, too short and too frayed
Looks like the hull has never been blacked
Since the day that the keel was first laid
The holes are broken, the bulls-eye is cracked
Fenders are gone from the rear
Floorboards are missing, the stern tube is shot
Not all that you’d call first class gear
Through the mud and the slime inches deep in the hold
I can see hard work written thereon
One look at the engine, its oil covered sump
I can tell every oil seal is gone
How many thousands of tons has it held?
How many locks does it know?
This old motor was once some young boater’s pride
But that was a long time ago
Now it lies in the reeds and they rob it for spares
Soon it’ll be eaten by rust
Some dredger driver will bury it deep
In a pile of black mud, silt and dust
The cabin is rotten, the steel work is thin
Chines are more than well worn
The dollies are buckled, the T-stud is bent
The sheets are all tattered and torn
The sleeve notes state that "this is a re-write of ‘There Lies A Workhorse’, a song about an old broken-down road
train truck by K. Dixon and Slim Dusty. The more mature may remember Slim's big UK hit ‘A Pub with No Beer’ in the
late 1950’s. With similar sentiments as the original, the words were altered to recall the days when redundant working
boats were abandoned and allowed to rot up some derelict canal arm. The remains of many a boat still lie under a
municipal car park that once was the town's canal basin."
Recorded on :